In the end, the viewing public’s best insight into resolution of the closest Iowa caucuses in history came down to a pair of diligent 70-year-old Clinton women checking their paperwork while on the phone with CNN early Wednesday.

Rick Santorum held a 10-vote margin over Mitt Romney after midnight, but one precinct in Iowa, the 2-2 in Clinton County, was missing. CNN tracked down Edith Pfeffer, chairwoman of the Clinton County Republican Party, at her Clinton home.

Pfeffer had gone to bed hours earlier and was roused by her phone ringing, the clangs of her doorbell and the persistent tap of Carolyn Tallett’s knuckles on her window.

“I didn’t know what in the world was going on,” Pfeffer recalled Wednesday afternoon.

She let Tallett inside, who quickly explained. Pfeffer answered the phone. It was a CNN producer. Could they put the pair live on the air? Sure, they said.

CNN anchors John King and Wolf Blitzer asked Pfeffer about the missing numbers. Pfeffer shuffled through her papers, and read the precinct totals and county totals off to King. King wrote them on a touch-sensitive TV screen.

The missing data gave Romney an eight-vote win over Rick Santorum and gave CNN a priceless TV moment, as the pair of longtime eastern Iowa party organizers sorted out the Republican political landscape on live TV.

“We knew the problem was in Clinton County and found Edith and Carolyn,” said Sam Feist, CNN’s Washington, D.C., bureau chief and executive producer of the network’s caucus coverage. “They had all the answers.”

Pfeffer and Tallett had Blitzer and King in stitches at one point. King noted how Pfeffer’s numbers were different from those released by the state Republican leadership.

Pfeffer explained to the CNN anchors that the 2-2 precinct captain turned in the results at 7:48 p.m. She collected the paperwork and went home to bed.

“You ladies don’t have any fresh coffee brewed, do you?” King asked.

“No,” Tallett replied, “but I think I’m ready for it.”

First came call from Romney staff
The CNN call was the second surprise call for Pfeffer that night. Shortly before midnight, a Romney campaign staffer called and asked Pfeffer for the county totals. Pfeffer was confused. Her team had already reported the numbers to the state. The Romney staffer said there was a computer problem. Pfeffer read the results to the Romney staffer.

“I went downstairs and crawled into bed,” Pfeffer said. “My cellphone was just outside the door, and I did not hear it. My daughter left seven messages trying to get a hold of me. The state was calling. CNN was calling.”

State Republican leaders finally reached Tallett. She drove over to Pfeffer’s house and roused her just in time for the CNN call.

The plainspoken Clinton duo became instant media sensations. “Edith and Carolyn” became a trending topic on Twitter, the website where users post thoughts 140 characters at a time. Someone created Facebook pages for the duo and dubbed the pair “the most trusted CNN news analysts of the 2012 election.”

A Facebook page for Tallett called her “a modern-day Paul Revere,” while a page for Pfeffer said she “just wanted to sleep but the damn national news wanted to chat.”

Later Wednesday morning, National Public Radio, the Washington Times and Entertainment Weekly had all written about how the two were the stars of CNN’s caucus coverage.

Women go about business Wednesday
Their brief stint in the eye of the political hurricane left the septuagenarians unruffled Wednesday.

Pfeffer serves as chairwoman of the U.S. Highway 30 Coalition, a group that wants to widen the road to four lanes across Iowa. Despite being up past 4 a.m. double-checking caucus results, she drove to Des Moines to attend a news conference with Iowa lawmakers pushing for a gas tax increase to help pay for the project.

The newly famous Pfeffer decided to turn her cellphone off during her trip to Des Moines.

“I had work to do,” she said. “I didn’t want to disrupt things with the phone ringing.”

Pfeffer, a mother of two daughters, is a retired consumer science teacher who worked in the Camanche, Clinton and Western Dubuque school districts. She picked up party activism in the late 1970s alongside her late husband, Paul Pfeffer, an attorney, who was a longtime chair of Clinton County Republicans.

Pfeffer attended the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Mo. She took over for her husband in the 1980s and has been active with the party ever since.

“She is a very experienced party organizer,” said Dan Smicker, co-chairman of Clinton County Republicans. “She is very organized and very knowledgeable. She’s whip smart and runs a tight ship.”

Tallett spent chunks of her day taking calls from news media while going about her daily business.

“It’s been quite exciting,” said the mother of two and grandmother of six.

Tallett got into politics with her late husband, James Tallett Jr. “It was something we did as a couple, so that was fun,” she said.

When two sons were in her late teens, she went to work in the Clinton County office of former U.S. Rep. Tom Tauke and the man who replaced him, former U.S. Rep. Jim Leach.

Not even enough time to gas up the car

The thought that Tallett would be a Twitter topic or Internet star baffled and amused her son, David Tallett, who works in finance in Cedar Rapids.

“We got her an iPad for Christmas, and she can send email with it and that’s about it,” the younger Tallett said. “We told her she’s going to have to master this thing if she wants to see the clip of herself on TV.”

The bustle prevented Carolyn Tallett from finishing a task nagging her since Monday night. David had driven with his mother to Chicago on Monday. When they returned to Clinton, Carolyn asked her son about the gas in her car.

It was low, he said.

“Well, the next day was caucus day, and I figured I could make it to that,” she said. “I did, but then I had to go over to Edith’s in the middle of the night. I left after 4 a.m., but I made her stay awake until I got home. I wasn’t sure I had enough gas to make it.”

She made it, but she still hadn’t made it to the filling station Wednesday afternoon.